Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Brain and Spinal Injury Center, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 31;13(1):1749. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-28508-0.
Interplanetary space travel poses many hazards to the human body. To protect astronaut health and performance on critical missions, there is first a need to understand the effects of deep space hazards, including ionizing radiation, confinement, and altered gravity. Previous studies of rodents exposed to a single such stressor document significant deficits, but our study is the first to investigate possible cumulative and synergistic impacts of simultaneous ionizing radiation, confinement, and altered gravity on behavior and cognition. Our cohort was divided between 6-month-old female and male mice in group, social isolation, or hindlimb unloading housing, exposed to 0 or 50 cGy of 5 ion simplified simulated galactic cosmic radiation (GCRsim). We report interactions and independent effects of GCRsim exposure and housing conditions on behavioral and cognitive performance. Exposure to GCRsim drove changes in immune cell populations in peripheral blood collected early after irradiation, while housing conditions drove changes in blood collected at a later point. Female mice were largely resilient to deficits observed in male mice. Finally, we used principal component analysis to represent total deficits as principal component scores, which were predicted by general linear models using GCR exposure, housing condition, and early blood biomarkers.
星际空间旅行对人体有许多危害。为了保护宇航员在关键任务中的健康和表现，首先需要了解深空危害的影响，包括电离辐射、禁闭和改变重力。先前对暴露于单一应激源的啮齿动物的研究记录了显著的缺陷，但我们的研究首次调查了同时暴露于电离辐射、禁闭和改变重力对行为和认知的可能累积和协同影响。我们的队列分为月龄为 6 个月的雌性和雄性小鼠，分为组、社会隔离或后肢卸载住房，暴露于 0 或 50cGy 的 5 种简化模拟银河宇宙辐射（GCRsim）。我们报告了 GCRsim 暴露和住房条件对行为和认知表现的相互作用和独立影响。暴露于 GCRsim 导致照射后早期外周血中免疫细胞群体发生变化，而住房条件导致后期血液发生变化。雌性小鼠在很大程度上对雄性小鼠观察到的缺陷具有抵抗力。最后，我们使用主成分分析将总缺陷表示为主成分得分，使用广义线性模型使用 GCR 暴露、住房条件和早期血液生物标志物进行预测。
